1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer ceramic capacitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, multilayer ceramic capacitors have been required which are high in capacitance and small in size. Such multilayer ceramic capacitors each have a laminated body formed in a rectangular or substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, for example, where dielectric layers for inner layers with internal electrodes printed and the internal electrodes are laminated alternately, and furthermore, ceramic layers for outer layers are laminated on the upper surface and lower surface thereof. Further, the capacitors each have external electrodes formed on both end surfaces of the laminated body.
Some of the multilayer ceramic capacitors have dielectric layers referred to as side margin portions, which are formed on side surfaces of the laminated bodies for preventing the internal electrodes from being connected to the external electrodes at the side surfaces.
JP 61-248413 A discloses a method for manufacturing a multilayer ceramic capacitor including such side margin portions as described previously. In the method for manufacturing a multilayer ceramic capacitor as described in JP 61-248413 A, first, ceramic green sheets are stacked which have, on the surfaces thereof, conductive films formed to define and function as internal electrodes. Next, a mother stacked body is formed, and cut such that the conductive films are exposed at side surfaces with no external electrodes formed in cutting the mother stacked body. As a result, a stacked body chip is obtained. Then, ceramic slurry to define and function as the side margin portions is applied to the internal electrodes exposed at both sides of the cut stacked body chip. Thus, it becomes possible to form the internal electrodes over the entire width of the stacked body chip, thus making it possible to increase the efficiency of acquiring the electrostatic capacitance, and to reduce the fluctuation in electrostatic capacitance.
However, the multilayer ceramic capacitor in JP 61-248413 A fails to achieve sufficient strength for the side margin portions, for example, when the thicknesses of the side margin portions, that is, the dimension of the stacked body in the width direction is reduced for the purpose of achieving higher capacitance in a smaller size of multilayer ceramic capacitor. Thus, the multilayer ceramic capacitor in JP 61-248413 A has the problem of failing to achieve sufficient deflecting strength. Moreover, the side margin portions are made more likely to be cracked or chipped, and ingress of water is caused from the cracks or chips. Thus, the multilayer ceramic capacitor in JP 61-248413 A has the problem of decreased insulation properties.